Ghandi, Macrina Wiederkehr and the Sermon on the Mount

This is part of my message from Sunday January 29^th, 2017. Please excuse any typo’s or grammar problems you find. 

The Sermon on the Mount is a description of what the Christian life should look like, but rarely does. In this sermon Jesus reveals to us the values of the kingdom of heaven and invites us to live in the kingdom way here and now.     

  

Among the people who listen to the Sermon on the Mount and try to understand its message for today are Hindus in India. They study this scripture because it was important to Mahatma Gandhi. 

Gandhi, studied the Christian faith and was thinking of becoming a Christian, but was turned off by the failure of those who name themselves as Christian’s to live out the teachings of Jesus.  He did not become a Christian, but he did fall in love and stay in love with the person of Jesus Christ. Gandhi pointed to the words of Jesus that we read this morning (Matthew 5: 1-12) as one of things that inspired him to develop the non-violent resistance movement that helped India gain independence from Britain. Gandhi said, “I found one whom I could follow. I just couldn’t stand his followers.”  

Yet there is a sense in which Gandhi became a very good example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus even though he remained a Hindu until the day he died. What is it about the Sermon on the Mount that so influenced Gandhi that he put these words on his wall that he might see them always?   

The German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, had a different impression. He read the Sermon on the Mount and thought it was the stupidest fraud that had ever been perpetuated on human beings. Neitzsche said you will become a human sheep if you follow this. I am told that Alfred Rosenberg, who was influenced by Nietzsche, was asked by Adolf Hitler how he might keep all the German Christians and still do what he wanted to do.  Rosenberg cut about 80 percent of the Sermon on the Mount out of the Bible and handed it back to the German church and said they could preach the rest. For the most part they did. Some of those who dissented were rounded up and put in prison. What was it in the Sermon on the Mount that the Nazi’s found so very threatening?   

What is it about this passage that makes it so dangerous to the status quo?  What is it about this passage that makes it so subversive, so capable of inspiring action that changes the world? These words seem at first glance contradictory. We do not normally think of the poor, the sad, the meek and the thirsty as the ones who are blessed.   

Macrina Wiederkehr says these teachings of Jesus are for people who have their hearts set on the Reign of God. They are a way of life designed for those who want their lives to be a blessing.  Beatitude people are kingdom people. They have a kingdom on their minds that won’t let them rest until all the world is striving to be just, compassionate and single-hearted. They call us forth from the cosy ruts of daily living and call us to be Christ in the world. They tell us that the Reign of God is already in our midst if we bless the world with beatitude-living.     

Let us look briefly at each of the beatitudes. The first is blessed are the poor in spirit.

Macrina Weiderkehr writes these words: 

I turned to the empty ones

What does it mean to be poor in spirit? I asked

Is there anything good about being that poor? 

The poor in spirit replied:

Can God fill anyone who is full?

Being poor in spirit has something to do with being open to God, when we are too full of ourselves and our own opinions we cannot hear what God would say to us. The poor in spirit are blessed because they know heir need for a wisdom and power beyond their own – they know their need of God. They are open to hear the word that God would speak to them. 

The next beatitude says blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. The word for mourn here is that kind of grief that one feels from having lost the most beloved person in your life. It is that sorrow so deep that it shakes your whole life, making you wonder if ever you will get over it. 

How can we say someone who mourns is blessed? Well firstly, mourning is related to love. People who have never mourned, have never loved. For love always involves loss.      

Macrina Wiederkehr says this

What does it mean to mourn?  

I asked those who were sorrowing

An old man stepped forward,

To mourn, he said, is to be given

A second heart

It is to care so deeply

That you show your ache in person.

To mourn is to be unashamed of tears

It is to be healed and broken all in the same moment. 

Blessed are you if you are so full of compassion

You see the need before it’s spoken.

Blessed are you if you can offer to others

A heart that feels their sorrow

A Heart that can wait quietly beside them

A heart that doesn’t try to hurry the healing. 

To mourn is to forget yourself for a moment

 and get lost in someone’s else’s pain

and then, finally to find yourself

in the very act of getting lost.

The next beatitude says blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. In our experience this is anything but true. The meek are not the ones who inherit, or win or gain a promotion or get elected president or prime minister, except maybe for Jimmy Carter. The meek are usually the ones who are left out, while the assertive and the aggressive get what they want.  We see meekness as a weakness, a character flaw. But this is not the kind of meekness that Jesus is referring to. The kind of meekness Jesus is referring to is strong. It is not thinking too highly or lowly of one’s self, but it is found in keeping a good balance, on seeing yourself as God sees you. The meek of whom Jesus is talking about here are persons not driven to step on everyone else to get what they want. They are humble before God, appreciative of the countless blessings they already have. They feel no need to be anything more than they already are, but they are also open to change, when change is required. What they inherit is a state of well being, of peace, of love, of being loved by others.  

Macrina Weiderkehr says

And to the meek, I said:

Tell me about this beatitude

It doesn’t sound like a blessing

To me, it looks like the face of weakness.

A face from the crowd of lowly ones

Shone forth with strength

Her smile reached the door of my heart

Then this lowly one spoke. 

To be meek is to be so full of truth

That everyone is comfortable

In your presence. 

It is to have a spirit young as the dawn

A heart as old as the evening.

It is to know yourself so well

And live yourself so fully

 that your very presence

calls forth gifts in others. 

It is to be comfortable

With your anger

And with your compassion.

The meek one grew silent for a moment

Then lifting her eyes, she said:

When you are meek

You don’t need a lot of followers

You just need a lot of truth. 

The lowly ones are able

To stand out in the open

And speak the truth

Sometimes quietly

Sometimes loudly.

The truth will be spoken

Even if no one listens

Even if no one hears.

For the meek person doesn’t need followers

The meek need to be true to themselves. 

A Prayer for a Life Well Lived

Yesterday I went to a memorial service for Jean Scott.  There was a prayer in the bulletin by Thomas |Merton that was one that Jean meditated on every night before she turned out the lights. If this was the prayer of Jean's heart no wonder she was such an amazing woman! 

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does indeed please you.  And I hope I have that desire  in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road through I may know nothing about it.  Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."  

                                        Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Jean Scott

Prior to 1929, women in Canada were not considered ‘persons’ – at least not in the fullest legal sense of the word.

Section 24 of the British North America Act (at that time, Canada’s constitution, the source of its highest laws) said that only ‘qualified persons’ could be appointed to the Canadian Senate. The Canadian government had consistently interpreted this phrase as meaning men only.

Naturally, suffragists like Emily Murphy were outraged. This interpretation suggested women were not ‘qualified persons’. Determined and ready to fight, Emily found a way. She discovered a little known provision in the Supreme Court of Canada Act that said any five persons acting as a unit could petition the Supreme Court for an interpretation of any part of the constitution. So on a fine summer’s day on August 27, 1927 she invited four of the brightest and most determined women activists she knew to her Edmonton home. On Emily’s veranda, the Famous 5 signed a letter petitioning the Supreme Court to look into the matter of whether the government could appoint a female senator.

The matter quickly became known as the ‘Persons’ Case. It was debated on March 14, 1928, with the Supreme Court eventually ruling that women were not “qualified persons” as it related to Section 24 of the BNA act.

The Famous 5, however, were not daunted. At the time, there was one authority even higher than the Supreme Court of Canada: The Privy Council in England. So they petitioned the Privy Council to rule on the matter. On October 18, 1929, Lord Sankey arrived to a packed courtroom in London to read the Privy Council’s judgement. To the relief and joy of the Famous 5 and women across Canada, the Privy Council said that yes, women were indeed persons and could become Senators.

From the Famous Five Foundation http://www.famous5.ca/index.php/the-famous-5-women/the-persons-case/

The Governor General's Awards in Commemoration of the Persons Case were created in 1979 to mark the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking Persons Case, which changed the course of history for women in Canada. Every year five women are given a medal in recognition of their work on behalf of women. In 1990 Jean Scott from Chilliwack, BC won the award. Always a forerunner, Jean Scott has spoken out for women's rights, especially the rights of female wage-earners, both in her job as a labour negotiator, and as a member of many women's groups. She has also worked with others to establish women’s shelters.  One in Hope, British Columbia bears her name. 

When I arrived in Chilliwack the 96 year old Jean was the motivating force for a gathering of remembrance in Chilliwack on the anniversary of the massacre of 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. For Jean it was important to remember and take action to protect human dignity and life.

Jean always fought for the rights of others. She worked not only on behalf of women, but also on behalf of men. She was a strong supporter of the union movement and anything that benefited the ordinary person.

Tomorrow there is a memorial service for Jean.  We will remember the contribution this amazing woman made to life. We will remember that life is not just what you get out of it, but what you give to make life better for others. We will remember an amazing woman whose spirit was strong and whose mind was sharp for the almost 103 years that she lived among us.  

A Ritual to Read to One Another by William Stafford

I love this deep and meaningful poem by American poet William Stafford. It speaks to me of the importance of being who we really are and the importance of letting others be who they are.  It is only as we get in touch with the treasure of our own true self that we can be truly awake and offer the world around the gift that is ours and ours alone to give.  

If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wander's the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider-
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking of the line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-should be clear:
the darkness around us is deep.

Night by Elie Wiesel

The book Night by Elie Wiesel has been on my to-read list for a very long time. Elie Wiesel tells of a desperate struggle for survival and how far people will go to keep on living for another day.  Elie Wiesel writes from his own experience as a 15 year old boy who survives the brutality of a Nazi concentration camp.  What makes this story so powerful is that Elie does not just talk about what happened, but tells you how it felt to be there with such raw intensity that you stand appalled in the midst of the story. 

A theme throughout the book is relationships between fathers and sons. Elie enters the concentration camp with a grim determination to stay near his father on whom he feels his life depends.  Near the end of the book he struggles with a sense of wanting to distance himself from his father who has become a detriment to his own survival. In spite of these feelings he continues to fight for his father's life.  One very stark story that Elie shares  which is particularly gut wrenching is of an old man clutching a crust of bread to his chest. The man’s son comes and violently rips it away.  The old man says, “Don’t you remember me. I am your father.”  Others come and violently take the bread away from the son. Both father and son end up dead.   

A very haunting part of the story for me as a person of faith is the death of God.  When an angelic looking boy is hanged someone asks, “Where is God?”  Elie responds by saying, “Where is he? Here he is – he is hanging on the gallows.  What I think Elie means is that his faith in a God of love dies on the gallows with that boy.  This question resonates for me as a Christian. We all ask ourselves where God is in the face of suffering. I too would say that God was hanging on the gallows, but when I say that I would mean that God suffers with everyone who is a victim of the world’s brokenness.  I am reminded of a prayer, “Crucified savior, naked God, you hang disgraced and powerless.  Grieving, we dare to hope, as we wait at the cross with your mother and your friend.”   

There is an important question that arises when we read a book like this. The question  being what we would do to survive.  The history of the world suggests most of us would let go of our humanity in a bid for survival.  The studies done by Milgram on obedience suggest that there may not be as much separating us from the Nazi prison guards as we like to think.  We need to ponder this question.   There are some things worse than death.  Becoming a person you detest is one of those things.  

A Couragous Joyous Love Filled Life

It was my privilege to lead a celebration of life for Ruth Robinson when she died at 92.  It was a wonder that Ruth lived that long for she had the worst health of anyone I have ever known. Ruth was written up in a Medical Journal because of her many complicated health problems. The family was told several times that Ruth was not going to make it through the night. In spite of these challenges Ruth radiated joy. I have permission to share two poems that Ruth wrote.

I Am Blessed

I am thinking today of the blessing I have,

And find that as they unfold

I feel overwhelmed by their numbers,

And their value more precious than gold. 

 

Today

Looking outside my window I see

a new day and only I can tell you

what kind of day it will be.

It can be busy, happy, laughing and gay

It can be dull, unhappy and grey.

My mind is the determining key.

For I am the person I myself will be.

I can be kind and thoughtful

I can do what I can to help others.

Or I can think just of myself.

I can enjoy what I do and make it fun.

Or I can complain and be miserable and

make it hard on someone.

I can be patient and loving and kind

I can hold out my held and be helpful,

Willing to understand other’s problems

and be with them whenever I can.

I have faith in myself and God willing

I will make the best of every day I live. 

Poems by Evangeline Paterson

I was at a workshop on Saturday where the leader shared this poem by Evangeline Paterson. I loved this poem.  It really spoke to me about how life feels sometimes.  

The water that I live in

is full of piranha
and it doesn't do
to have a bleeding heart
in this locality.
Please God
get me out of this water
or give me a shell
or teeth...
Just don't leave me here
with nothing
but the conviction
that piranha
are all God's children too. 

Another wonderful poem by Evangeline Paterson.  I think Evangeline is becoming my favorite poet.  Unfortunately her books of poetry are out of print. 


I used to think   —   loving life so greatly   —  
That to die would be like leaving a party
Before the end.
Now I know that the party is really happening
Somewhere else;
That the light and the music   —
Escaping in snatches to make the pulse beat and the tempo quicken   —
Come from a long way away.
And I know too that when I get there
The music will never end.

—   Evangeline Paterson